


It Was In Another Galaxy, and Besides the Mech is Dead

by BuffyRowan



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Prime
Genre: Episode: s1e26 One Shall Rise pt 3, Filling in some gaps, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-03
Updated: 2014-12-03
Packaged: 2018-02-27 23:47:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2711153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BuffyRowan/pseuds/BuffyRowan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ratchet left out a few details when he told Jack about Optimus' history with Megatron</p>
            </blockquote>





	It Was In Another Galaxy, and Besides the Mech is Dead

Ratchet had told them the tale of friendship between a young scholar and a gladiator with high goals of becoming a Prime. He'd kept it simple, clear. No need going into the messier details of Cybertronian class politics and friends who were like brothers.

He hadn't told them about a medic who'd done his turn at the arena's infirmary, either. A serious-minded mech, with a reputation among his fellow medics as a bit of a bar of ore. Like so many others, he'd been a fan of Megatronus', but he'd never spoken a word to the mech, aside from what was necessary for treating his injuries. The medic hadn't seen the point of trying, so sure that he'd never catch the eye of such a popular bot.

Ratchet couldn't narrate the following events dispassionately. Even now, with all the time, distance, and violence between them, he closely guarded the memories. He'd met Megatronus when he was rising star of the arena. Ratchet wasn't sure who had been more surprised when the gladiator had pursued Ratchet, his fellow medics or himself. Megatronus had been a bit rough around the edges, but very attractive and charming, and it hadn't taken long for Ratchet to fall for him. Their differences hadn't seemed to matter much, in those days. Megatronus had been far from stupid, simply undereducated. But he'd seemed to enjoy Ratchet rattling on about Cybertronian biology and medicine, soaking up information and asking questions. He'd actually been more interested than most of Ratchet's fellow medics, come to that. 

They'd been together for several orns when Megatronus had introduced him to a friend of his, Orion Pax. Ratchet wouldn't have immediately pegged the quiet, shy academic as someone Megatronus would be friends with, but after getting to know the young mech a bit better, he'd understood. It had also solved the mystery of how Megatronus had polished his oratory skills. While Megatronus had always been popular and charismatic, his speech patterns had marked his station in life, and been used against him by Primes on the council. But Megatronus had changed his speaking style, becoming more polished, more erudite, and had begun quoting the writings of past Primes. After meeting Orion and hearing about how he and Megatronus had become friends, Ratchet had understood. Orion had been teaching Megatronus, like Ratchet had. Except he'd been teaching Megatronus history, and in showing him old records and speeches, he'd been helping Megatronus acquire the polish that would lend him credibility among the upper classes. 

Ratchet had felt a kinship with the scholar. They'd shared a tendency to get lost in their work, a love of knowledge in general, and a deep admiration (love) of Megatronus. In fact, he'd wondered if Megatronus had meant for Orion to join them, and been willing to make the suggestion if he hadn't already considered the possibility. Despite the slagging mess humans made of polyamory most of the times they tried it, on Cybertron it had been common enough, and just as stable and successful as a binary pairing, usually. 

But after Orion had become Optimus, Ratchet had seen everything in a whole new light. Megatronus had viciously turned on Orion/Optimus. He'd raved about how he'd stolen the power of Prime from Megatronus, had used Megatronus to get to it. Ratchet had tried to be understanding, had tried to sympathize, because to lose something that you'd spent so much time and energy working for only to lose it was difficult. Then Megatronus had started to turn on Ratchet, accusing him of conspiring with Orion against him . . .

It had been painful, to realize the darker truth to their relationship. Ratchet had loved Megatronus for the fact that he hadn't tried to force him to change, had accepted his absorption in his work and how little Ratchet wanted to spend his time off mingling with other mechs after hours treating patients. He'd thought that Megatronus had truly understood his calling, his need to be the best doctor possible for his patients. Ratchet had thought that Megatronus had been considering adding Orion to their relationship, had thought it was a good idea. He'd been thinking how Orion balanced the two of them, had offered them both something they couldn't get from each other. It had taken too long for Ratchet to realize the truth, that Megatronus had preferred to keep Ratchet isolated from other mechs socially, that while he'd wanted Orion with them, it hadn't been in any form of equality like Ratchet had been imagining. The fight had been brutal, emotionally and verbally in the beginning, and had ended with Megatronus trying to make it physical. Ratchet might not have been a gladiator, but he was a medic, and he knew exactly how to make things too painful for the other mech. He'd left, and the next Ratchet had heard of him, he'd been going by Megatron.

Ratchet and Optimus had clung to their friendship, the only thing they'd had to counter the sting of loss and betrayal of Megatronus. For orns, they'd been friends, brothers-in-arms, shoring each other up as the war began, and Cybertron destroyed itself. It was in the early days of their wandering the galaxy after they'd left the ruins of Cybertron that he and Optimus had first turned to each other as anything more than friends, no matter what Megatron believed in his paranoid, jealous delusions. 

And now Ratchet was stuck in a base on a backwater planet, babysitting the humans while his lover went off to attempt to destroy an enemy out of Cybertronian legend, with the assistance of said paranoid, jealous ex-lover, who'd been trying to kill them both for centuries. 

Ratchet prayed to Primus that he wouldn't have to explain Cybertronian funeral and mourning rituals to the curious humans when all of this was over.


End file.
